When I was in my high school auto mechanics class learning how to rebuild carburetors, grind valve seats and set the valve clearances on a Triumph TR7, I was already dreaming about being an engineer in the industry and developing new cars. One of the most important lessons I learned from those years in the garage was that any engineer should be required to assemble and service a product before it goes into production. It’s become apparent to me over the past 35 years that few if any engineers have ever picked up a wrench. Fortunately, Honda seems to have heard that message and implemented it in the design of the 2016 Pilot crossover.
During the development process for the new Pilot, Honda revised the usual design workflow to something they called “No Prototype Development” or NPD. Despite what the NPD name implies, there actually were prototypes built, they just came at a different stage of the process. Typically, automakers build an initial batch of prototypes for a new vehicle at a tech center, which in this case is the Honda R&D center in Marysville, Ohio. These initial prototypes are hand-built using equipment that usually in no way resembles the production tooling. The manufacturing engineering team at the factory then gets some of these prototypes to take apart and put back together as they figure out how to mass produce it.
2016 Honda Pilot Body Structure
For the Pilot, much more work was done up front in a computer aided design environment where they built a virtual body shop and assembly line. Refinement of much of the manufacturing process took place in simulation environment. When the time came to build real test vehicles, the process occurred on the Pilot assembly line in Lincoln, Alabama. While the team members from the plant were heavily involved in designing the process in the CAD system, they actually stepped aside for the initial builds and let the engineers from R&D pick up the tools. This way they could experience firsthand any issues that would affect production such as routing of wire harnesses and fitting of the steering column.
The plant was equipped with industrial 3D printing equipment that enabled them to produce parts like a transparent instrument panel cover so the engineers could check out wire and duct routing and optimize everything to ease assembly and ensure better quality. The plant engineers also used the printers to try out new tools before building them such as a rig to aid installation of the steering column. The new Pilot has the electric power assist motor mounted on the column rather than the rack, which improves feel and efficiency, but the column is heavier and harder to maneuver. doing the prototype builds on the line enabled faster design iterations for the equipment and components. While Honda declined to give specifics about the total development time, they did acknowledge that the new process saved several months and probably millions of dollars in design and tooling changes. Workers on the assembly line and Honda service shops will probably have a much easier time working on the new Pilot.
Fractured wheels
The completed third-generation of Honda’s big three-row CUV hits the streets this fall and when it does it will carry a top safety pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and is expected to get five stars when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash tests it. One of the key features of the new design is the way it handles the difficult new small offset rigid barrier (SORB) crash test that IIHS added in 2012. Despite the fact the vehicles have been getting steadily safer over the past five decades, more than 30,000 people die in traffic accidents in the U.S. every year and 2.3 million are injured.
‘16 Honda Pilot SOT – Rear
Institute for Highway Safety’s small overlap front test.
When IIHS and NHTSA began looking at reasons for this in 2009, they found that many collisions involved hitting just an outer corner of the vehicle against another object or vehicle. In this scenario, the main frame rails that are designed to take the brunt of the impact force were essentially being bypassed causing intrusion of the front wheel or suspension into the cabin and particularly the footwell. The SORB test is designed to replicate this scenario and automakers have begun implementing new structures to handle these loading conditions, some more successfully than others.
Honda took a very holistic approach to designing the crash structure of the Pilot with a three zone system. The initial impact zone includes a longer bumper beam with joints that transfer the forces at the outer ends back into the main frame rails. The second zone includes a structure dubbed the “elephant nose because of the way it looks in profile. The elephant nose structure reaches down on either side of the engine compartment and crumples to absorb energy in the event of an impact. The two existing rails that ran under the passenger cell have been joined by a third rail in the center tunnel. The front structure now splits the energy between the outer and central rails in a small offset crash to even out the distribution and transfer the energy to the rear of the vehicle.
The final zone is the passenger cell which now includes door rings made from ultra-high strength steel with a strength of 1,500 MPa. The goal was to ensure that the passenger area was stronger than the parts around it to prevent intrusion into the footwells. When the new Pilot is rammed into the small offset barrier, energy is dissipated through the elephant nose structure, the front suspension and even wheels that fracture when they hit the door rings rather than penetrating. After the crash test, the doors can still open.
In total, the new Pilot structure consists of 21 percent high-strength steels along with aluminum, magnesium and composites. Despite all the extra strength built in, Honda still managed to cut the overall weight by 300 pounds and make the pillars slimmer for better visibility.
The new Pilot is also available with the Honda Sensing driver assist package that includes adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning and prevention. The radar and camera sensors can detect an impending collision and automatically apply emergency braking even if the driver doesn’t. Kinetic energy increases with the square of the speed so even small reductions in impact speed can have a big effect on the amount of damage and potential for injuries. If the collision mitigation braking can scrub off 10-15 mph, it can mean the difference between a fatality, serious injury or just some scrapes and bruises.
Hopefully, I’ll never experience what if feels like to crash a Pilot, but I feel confident that if I do, I’ll come away in better shape than the previous edition.